


The General in distress

by lunaemoth



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Friendship, Gen, Mission Fic, Rescue, Rescue Missions, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:54:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25653205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaemoth/pseuds/lunaemoth
Summary: When General Kenobi is captured, the 501st and 212th have to move fast to get him back before he ends up in the clutches of Grievous.
Relationships: 212th Attack Battalion & 501st Legion, 212th Attack Battalion & Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 10
Kudos: 194
Collections: Clone Wars Saved Exchange 2020





	The General in distress

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LazarusII](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LazarusII/gifts).



> **Request:** "In the act of saving Commander Cody, Obi-Wan manages to get himself injured and captured--now it's up to Cody and his 212th/501st brothers to rescue him. Family feels and bamf clones going after their General. Please feel free to refer back to the meme of Cody dog-piling Grievous."  
> I hope I delivered!
> 
> Thanks to [Arboreal](https://arboreal-elm-ash-oak.tumblr.com/) for accepting to beta this!

This campaign had been a mess from the beginning. The 212th and 501st were collaborating to uproot the Seps from a backwater moon aptly named ‘Nop’ (it was supposed to mean something deep in the local language, but the vode just took it as proof of how terrible the new stage of the GAR tour was). General Skywalker and Commander Tano were leading the troops in space while General Kenobi handled the ground. The first part was going well. The second part, not so much.

It was a battle of territory, infinitely losing and gaining ground. The weak atmosphere of the moon was a handicap for the vode while the clankers didn’t need to worry about the level of oxygen. The low gravity compensated slightly as the clones adapted much better than the droids to this condition, but the fighting conditions still weren’t ideal… at all.

Something was bound to go wrong.

It happened during their third retreat.

Foxtrot Group, led by Commander Cody and General Kenobi, had tried to take an outcrop over a valley so their troops could move safely forward, but going up made breathing even more difficult. They had been attacked when at their worst. Despite their best efforts, they were stuck. The General had ordered the retreat. 

A LAAT had been called to evacuate them. Cody and his General were covering their men while they jumped inside the transport, easily clearing the distance between the hovering LAAT and the cliff thanks to the low gravity. Once the men were safely inside and started to cover them in turn, Commander and General retreated as well. Following their usual strategy, Cody went first so that a lightsaber covered his back.

The pilot’s voice crackled in his comlink in warning: “Anti-aircraft!” The LAAT moved to dodge a projectile.

The warning came too late. Cody had already jumped. The LAAT was bucking too far. Even with low gravity, Cody wouldn’t make it. Holding on tight to the door’s handle, Gregor was holding out his hand to try and catch him. It wouldn’t be enough.

Warned by the Force, Obi-Wan glanced over his shoulder and shouted in fright: “Cody!” Without a thought, he threw both hands up.

Cody could feel the moment he had reached the peak of his jump. He expected a fall and accepted the indignity of dying as a pancake, of all possibilities. Instead, he turned into a missile, projected forward as if a bantha had charged at him and hit him in the back. He was thrown in the arms of Gregor. The force of it sent them flying among the rest of the men and into the opposite wall of the LAAT. Cody ended up on top in a pile of vode, but his only thought was to turn enough to look over his shoulder.

“General!” he shouted in dread. If he had survived, there could only be one explanation and its terrible consequence.

On the outcrop, at the edge of the cliff, General Kenobi was on his knees, surrounded by clankers. His tunic was burned under his ribs, indicating he had been hit while protecting Cody. A droid hit him with something sharp, and soon the General stopped resisting. He was cuffed and slowly nodded off, clearly drugged. One of the clankers surrounding him nudged a small object fallen to the ground. Cody watched as a lightsaber fell from the cliff and into the valley below.

Cursing his luck, his General’s damn selflessness, and the clankers in one breath, Cody ignored his vode’s grumbling as he leaned on them to stand up.

“Commander! The anti-aircraft is aiming again! What are your orders?!” the pilot asked.

Hissing between his teeth, Cody stared as his drugged General was being hauled and dragged away while dozens of clankers were now aiming at the LAAT. With a heavy heart, he replied: “Retreat.”

oOo

Five minutes later, when they landed in their camp, Rex was waiting for them. 

Cody jumped down and walked to him with determined steps. 

“I have scouts looking for the General’s lightsaber,” Rex promised him, falling into step as Cody went directly to the command tent. “What are your orders?”

Gregor was walking on Cody’s right. “If we hurry, we can get him back before the clankers deliver him to Grievous.”

“Yes,” Cody agreed as they pushed aside the tent’s flap. The main officers of the 501st and 212th were waiting for him, already briefed and ready to rescue their Jedi. “Gregor, get your men to medical.”

“Sir. We can still fight. We can get back the General!”

“Foxtrot Group is exhausted, Captain. The climb was already too much. If we want to get the General back quickly, I need fresh troops.” Cody reached for Gregor’s forearm and squeezed. “If you want to please the General, make sure you’re all healthy when we get him back. He’ll want to check on you.”

Gregor bowed his head, knowing he was right. “Yes, Sir,” he agreed reluctantly before leaving to check on his men.

Cody turned toward the others and walked up to the table showing a holomap of the region. “What do we have?”

“I sent all available scouts to assess the situation,” Rex replied. “For now, we can guess that they’ll try to reach their main camp and its spaceport to get General Kenobi to Grievous, in orbit.”

“It’s a three hour walk from the attack location to the spaceport, with no good landing site for troop transport in between,” Appo supplied.

“It gives us enough time to strike and snatch the General back,” Jesse commented with a lopsided smile.

“We have a three-hour window,” Cody repeated to himself. “Are we sure that Grievous is still in orbit?”

“General Skywalker mentioned he was still needling him, last time I heard,” Rex offered.

“And when was that?”

“An hour ago. I left a message with the Admiral about General Kenobi's situation, but General Skywalker was engaged in combat when I called.”

Cody made a displeased face. That wasn’t good enough. “The clankers will have called Grievous as soon as they captured the General. He might decide to come and secure a Jedi himself.”

“We could call the Admiral and ask him to shoot at every ship going in atmo, to dissuade Grievous,” Appo suggested. 

“Do it,” Cody agreed, “but there’s still a possibility Grievous might make his way to the capturing team. It has to be taken into account.”

“Well, if need be, we’ll just pile on him,” Jesse suggested with a teasing tone. He met Cody’s unimpressed stare with a grin. Undaunted, he crossed his arms and postured. “We have been raring for a chance to outdo the 212th, Sir. I heard you were three trying to take him down. Obviously, that wasn’t enough. We should try with five.”

“That’s your deathwish, soldier,” Cody replied dismissively, too concerned for his General to be amused or even take offense. The story of ‘dogpiling Grievous’, as it had been called, might have gone around the vode as a hilarious act of madness and genius (it often went together), but Cody always failed to see what all the fuss was about. In the field, you did what you could against the enemy, dignity be damned. They had had to stop Grievous. They only had their bodies to do so. So they piled on him. Basic strategy. The amazing part was that they had survived… That might account for the ‘madness’.

He looked closer at the map, trying to memorize the landscape and find the best place for an ambush.

Rex stepped closer and reached for his elbow. “The scouts will report soon. We’ll plan then, and the 501st is ready to move at your command. You should take a break while you can, vod,” he said softly.

Cody hesitated, wishing to get back his General  _ now _ , but Rex was right. He nodded reluctantly and let himself be led to a seat. While he removed his helmet, Rex handed him water and a ration bar to recover the energy lost during the climb.

“What you said to Gregor was true for you, too,” Rex commented softly to not be heard by the 501st officers speaking between themselves about the best strategy. “You need to rest.”

“There’s no time to rest when my General’s captured,” Cody replied sharply after guzzling half of the water bottle. “Especially not when it happened because the  _ di’kut  _ did it to save me,” he grumbled to himself.

Rex kneeled in front of his friend, elbows resting on his thighs and wrists hanging between his knees. “Cody, I get it, I do. I’d do the same for my General and Commander, but you aren’t at your best, right now. You know that if our roles were reversed, you’d insist to make me sit it out.” He waved a hand when Cody tried to protest. “I won’t suggest that you do. I don’t have the rank to pull it off, unfortunately,” he commented with a smirk. “However, maybe you should focus on the recovery part, and let us handle the ambush?”

Cody was going to reply when the flap of the tent was pushed open to let in 212th officers. They went for Cody as soon as they saw him.

“Sir! We just heard. Ghost Company is ready at your command.”

“You’re on rest, Waxer.” They had been on the night shift.

“Precisely, Sir. We’re rested and ready to go and get our General back.” Waxer hit his chest with his fist.

Cody chewed on his ration bar, swallowed, and turned toward Rex. “The 212th will rescue our General," he said, determined, "but the 501st can come along and have fun with the clankers.”

Rex smirked, taking the jibe good-naturedly. “Aww, you’re sharing your toys with us. That’s how we know we’re your favorites.” 

"There are no favorites among the Third System Army, vod," Cody replied, stonefaced, before raising an eyebrow. "But if there were, you'd be the first I call for my General, just by virtue of having one just as maddening."

The joke made the whole tent chuckle. Jesse reached for Waxer and leaned on his shoulder.

"Should we keep score on who has to help the most to save the other's Jedi?"

"I don't think you thought that through," Waxer pointed out with a smirk.

"Oh, kriff," Jesse muttered to himself. "I forgot we have two."

"That's because Commander Tano hasn’t pulled any stunts lately," Appo pointed out.

"Give it time," Boil said, amused.

"Don't jinx us, vod," Rex asked solemnly.

oOo

Thanks to some balance in the Force to compensate for their bad luck in this campaign — or some such mystical reason, their rescue plan went without a hitch. 

With three LAAT and the gracious help of this dreadful moon’s gravity, they managed to drop on the clankers, no parachute or jetpack needed. The move surprised the droids enough that they scrambled to defend from an attack from the sky.

They had been walking along the dangerous mountainous paths with an unconscious General Kenobi in the middle, carried by a B2 super battle droid. It made sense since the B1s weren’t sturdy enough to carry a human, but the tactical programming of the B2 clearly didn’t include such a scenario: when he noticed enemies, he actually dropped his prisoner to attack without a thought. This made the job of the recovery team much easier.

The 501st had dropped first around the convoy to draw in enemy’s fire, taking defensive positions to hold the line as long as necessary.

Ghost Company jumped afterward in the middle of the convoy and went directly for the General.

The three meter drop from the B2's shoulder, even with low gravity, had not been kind on the Jedi. Obi-Wan stirred and groaned as he blinked open heavy lids. Heavily drugged, he tried to fight the sedative and rise on his elbows, but he was sluggish. He could hear blaster shots and droids’ squeaks. Months of war had trained his instincts, pushing him to get up, draw his lightsaber, and defend  _ immediately _ . Except that his body was heavy and slow, and his head extremely fuzzy. Oh, ouch. And he had a hole in his side, apparently.

Two pairs of hands were on him before he could hope to understand what was going on. “We’ve got you, Sir,” a clone said. Obi-Wan needed a moment to recognize Waxer, and that would be Cody on his other side. 

Obi-Wan blinked as he was pulled up efficiently. His worry at his predicament mostly dissolved at the presence of his men. He trusted them to compensate for his clearly deficient state. He barely protested when he found himself lifted over Waxer’s shoulder. It was completely undignified, but he wasn’t prideful enough to pretend that he could stay standing, let alone walk, or — Force help him — run.

He was so, so sleepy that it seemed to be just a blink of an eye before he felt them jump — and, oh, oh, he remembered something about jumping, didn’t he? Yes, they were retreating, jumping into a LAAT…

Oh, a LAAT, that’s actually where they ended up. As planned, then. Wonderful. Was he just unconscious for a minute? Did he fall and hit his head, maybe?

Fighting the drugs in his system, trying to purge it with the help of the Force, Obi-Wan stubbornly resisted the call of the sedative and straightened enough to glance behind them at the battlefield they were leaving. He saw blue. The 501st. There weren’t any men from the 501st on his mission… Not just a minute, then. Damn.

“You’re safe, sir,” Waxer was saying as he kneeled to put Obi-Wan on the seat and get him in a harness (harnesses were only for civilians… and injured soldiers that couldn’t stay in their seat, like him, apparently, since he’d have tipped over without Cody’s hand on his shoulder).

A blink of an eye, and suddenly a medic was in Waxer’s place, kneeling in front of Obi-Wan.

“Sir, are you with me?”

“Yes, yes,” Obi-Wan mumbled, his head rolling back against the wall.

“Are you hurt anywhere else than your side, Sir?”

He could feel something cold and wet on his side. A bacta patch. His belt had been removed, his tunics had been pushed out of his pants and up... When did that happen? Damn. How much sedative had he been given? Enough for a bantha, surely!

“Sir?” A hand on his shoulder shook him, and Obi-Wan blinked to look up at Cody. Feeling his Commander’s worry, Obi-Wan did his best to smile. “Sir, are you hurt anywhere else?”

“No, no… Just very, very sleepy. Can’t focus long enough to purge it. Cody?” 

“Yes, Sir?” 

“I’m glad you aren’t a pancake,” he mumbled before falling back asleep.

He missed the snorts and bursts of laughter this declaration provoked among Ghost Company.

“Me too, Sir,” Cody murmured fondly.

oOo

Obi-Wan woke up in the medical tent. As soon as he had negotiated his way out of bed with Kix, he was walking around, checking on his men. He was glad to learn that Foxtrot Group had all reached camp safely and would pull through without after-effects. However, he was displeased to discover that his rescue led to two men being seriously wounded.

“It’s all good, Sir,” Zen, from the 501st, told him with slurred words due to the medication he was on. “Of all the ways to lose a hand, rescuing a General sounds pretty good.”

Obi-Wan sat on a stool next to Zen and squeezed his shoulder. “It does, indeed.”

He stayed and kept his men company, bantering with them good-naturedly. Since Kix had agreed to him standing on the condition he stayed in this tent, he might as well be productive and sociable at the same time. Checking with his men was just as important as the rest… when he had time for it.

The Commander appeared with lunch, and Obi-Wan went back to his bed to eat. On the way, he was sometimes leaning on the first thing in reach. The heavy dose of sedative he had received had provoked a drop in his blood pleasure which wasn’t completely resolved yet. The world tended to sway when he moved too fast.

Cody’s hand came to rest on his elbow as he walked by his side, and Obi-Wan smiled at him reassuringly.

On the tray Cody had brought, amid the meal, rested a familiar item. "The scouts got your lightsaber back from the valley where it fell."

"What would I do without you all?" Obi-Wan said with an affectionate smile. 

"I'll share your appreciation with the shinies who got stuck with hunting duty. I heard the lucky one was named Fives and very proud of himself."

“I'll be sure to thank Fives and all his vode for searching for me. Anything else new?”

“Apart from the fact that scuttlebut travels fast, and General Skywalker now calls me Commander Not-a-pancake, no, not in the last hour since you asked, Sir.”

Obi-Wan groaned in embarrassment. “He didn’t.”

“Unfortunately.”

“I’m sorry, Cody,” Obi-Wan sighed. He was embarrassed by the fact that he had spoken such a silly sentence that it had immediately spread through the ranks like wildfire,  _ and  _ by his student’s lack of decorum. He had the excuse of drugs. Anakin had none. “I’ll have a word with him.”

“It’s one more story to tell the shinies, Sir. Got saved from ‘pancake fate’ by his General and saved his General in return.”

Obi-Wan snorted and reached for Cody’s hand, squeezing it gently. “I hope you’ll do justice to the bravery of both the 501st and 212th in this story.”

“I might let Jesse tell it, then. If you listen to him, we saved you from the clutches of thousands of clankers and escaped just in time to avoid Grievous, provoking his screams of rage.”

Chuckling, Obi-Wan sat and raised his legs on the bed when the world went dark at the edge of his vision. A glass of water immediately appeared, and he accepted it with a smile of thanks for his second-in-command.

“I’m lucky to have you all. Do make sure to thank all the men for me, if you please.”

“Of course, Sir, but no thanks are necessary.”

“Well, you did rescue me and apparently managed to take control of our objectives while I was incapacitated. One could almost feel useless.”

Cody threw him an unimpressed look at those last words. “Yes, Sir, it’s not like you’re our main motivation at all. Just don’t get caught next time, and it will be thanks enough.”

“Yes, Commander," he replied dutifully.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Mando'a words:**  
>  _Di'kut_ : idiot  
>  _Vod(e)_ : brother(s)
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr under the same name](https://lunaemoth.tumblr.com/).


End file.
